This week we were asked to review the Puppy Surprise toy from Flair.
They really haven’t changed much in the intervening years; the appearance and premise is the same. You choose the mummy dog and the ‘surprise’ in the Puppy Surprise is the number and type of puppies that the mummy dog has in her tummy.
I don’t remember what attracted me as a child but I’ll be honest, as an adult I wasn’t totally convinced by the appearance. It isn’t a toy I would have picked in the shop, however when I asked my daughter if she would like to play with one, the answer was a resounding yes, and so we agreed to review one.
The mummy dog we received was Cali, a series 5 Puppy Surprise.
Series 5 has eight dogs to choose from (the packaging suggests you might like to collect them all, but this is not something I conveyed to my three year old!).
The mummy dog has brushable hair and a heart-shaped sparkly collar.
You get between three and five puppies (although only one in four of the Puppy Surprise toys comes with more than three puppies), and all but one are hidden inside the mummy dog. Not entirely anatomically correct but possibly better than the alternative (although I have a few questions to answer now which I hadn’t considered. Whoops).
They can be girls or boys, some are smaller than the others, and one of them barks when you press its back. We got three puppies, all girls (or boys who like pink collars) and the same size but with different faces.
The big one received her Puppy Surprise on her brother’s birthday for being such a good girl at preschool and helping me to wrap his presents. And also so she wouldn’t steal his toys because let’s face it that’s what siblings do.
She seemed really pleased with it and decided it was ‘very cute’ despite my personal reservations.
I let her choose one toy to take down to her grandparents and she decided to take the Puppy Surprise.
Despite my best efforts she likes anything that is ‘typically girlie’ and loves playing mummies and taking care of things, and so she loves this kind of toy which allows her to express her nurturing side (whilst also being heavy enough to use as a weapon against her younger brother with when she’s not feeling quite so nurturing).
If you have a young child aged 3-6ish who enjoys nurturing and playing mummy, they will probably enjoy the Puppy Surprise.
There is a huge range of Puppy Surprise toys (including kittens and zoo animals if dogs aren’t your thing!) which you can browse here at Amazon.
Cali is a Series 5 Puppy Surprise however you can now buy Wave 8 puppies in shops with an RRP of £27.99.
You can also purchase additional puppies to go with the toy.
We received this toy free for the purposes of this review, however all thoughts are my own.